2009 March

Our 175 year old Peterborough Town Library had a fun event a few days ago to celebrate Beth Krommes, the 2009 Randolph Caldecott Medal winner. Beth is a good friend of ours and lives in Peterborough, just down the road from us. She and Lita usually drive together to our two annual southern NH children’s book events: The Keene Children Literature Festival and the SCBWI Nashua Conference. (This year they’re both featured speakers at the Keene Festival.)

The House in the Night is such a beautiful book—here’s our new copy with the Caldecott sticker:

The House in the Night

I spent most of the night talking with Beth’s husband, Dave, about software and websites and blogs. Dave designed Beth’s new site last summer.

We’re looking forward to Beth’s ALA speech—I’ve heard it may have some reference to the ice storm and 10 day power outage we experienced in Peterborough in December. Lita will be at the ALA conference this summer …

but we’re not sure if she’ll be able to attend the awards ceremony.

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We recently heard that an organization called Wisconsin Braille has transcribed One Thousand Tracings and made it available for free to Wisconsin School Libraries. This sounds like a fantastic program and we’re honored that Tracings was included.

Here’s some information from their website:

Once again, Wisconsin Braille, Inc. is pleased to offer a selection of braille books for your school library because of grant money awarded us. As in the past, the committee has chosen books that are not already brailled. We searched the on-line catalog in our local library, as well as other sources, to locate recognized books of excellence.

Wisconsin Braille Inc.’s Special Book Project was started in 1998 with the production of one braille book offered at no cost to school libraries in Wisconsin. In co-ordination with teachers of the visually impaired and school librarians across the state, the Special Book Committee solicits possible titles for transcription. The books selected for transcription represent a wide range of reading levels, fiction and non-fiction material, and poetry.

Every effort is made to select books that are not already available in braille. In collaboration with the Oshkosh State Correctional Institution (OSCI), book selections are transcribed by transcribers certified by the Library of Congress/National Library Service (NLS) under the direction of the coordinator of the OSCI Braille Program. The books are available in hard-copy or on disc.